Multimedia:

James Beard-award winning chef Grant Achatz and sous vide guru Nathan Myhrvold will explore the ways that science and technology are transforming our notions of food. Using new tools and techniques, top chefs are creating dishes that range from the simply delicious to the otherworldly, challenging both the mind and palate. Kitchens, once the home of stoves, food processors and not much else, are becoming more like laboratories, stocked with centrifuges and canisters of liquid nitrogen.

Grant Achatz is the chef and owner of Alinea restaurant in Chicago. Nathan Myhrvold is the CEO of Intellectual Ventures and former CTO of Microsoft. Wired senior editor Mark McClusky will moderate the discussion.

This event is co-presented with

photo of Grant Achatz by Lara Kastner

About Grant Achatz

Grant Achatz is the chef and owner of Alinea. Food & Wine named him one of the Best New Chefs in 2002. He received the James Beard Rising Star Chef award in 2003; the Best Chef/Great Lakes award in 2007; and the top James Beard honor, Outstanding Chef in the United States, in 2008. Before opening Alinea in 2005, Achatz was sous chef at the French Laundry in Yountville, CA, and the executive chef of Trio in Chicago. His new book is Alinea

About Mark McClusky

Mark McClusky is a Wired senior editor. He has written extensively about food and technology, including a feature profile of Achatz, and a look at Myhrvold's sous vide research. He is one of the authors of Alinea, the first cookbook from Achatz's restaurant. McClusky directs gear and gadget coverage at Wired.

About Nathan Myhrvold

Nathan Myhrvold is chief executive officer and a founder of Intellectual Ventures, a firm dedicated to creating and investing in invention. When he's not encouraging innovation in others, Myhrvold is an active inventor with nearly 300 patents issued or pending, including several related to food technology. Before founding Intellectual Ventures, Myhrvold was the first chief technology officer at Microsoft, where he helped develop Microsoft Windows and Office and founded Microsoft Research.